Tuesday, 22 October 2013

Drone Warfare: America is still killing civilians from the sky

In a major new report published today, the most comprehensive study of the US
drones programme conducted from a human rights perspective, Amnesty has reviewed the use of drones in Pakistan’s north-western tribal
areas where most drone strikes have taken place. The report
condemns the almost complete absence of transparency around the US drone
programme and concludes that the USA has carried out unlawful killings, some of
which could amount to war crimes. Amnesty
reviewed all 45 known drone strikes that took place in North Waziristan in
north-western Pakistan between January 2012 and August this year. Contrary to
official claims that those killed were “terrorists”, Amnesty’s research
indicates that in a number of cases the victims were not involved in armed
activity and posed no threat to life.

Cases like that of Mamana Bibi, a 68-year-old grandmother who, last October, was
picking vegetables in the family field outside her home, with her
grandchildren. No men of “fighting age” were anywhere near her. She was
horrifically killed in a double strike, apparently by a Hellfire missile. A
second volley of missiles was fired a few minutes later, gravely injuring some
of the children who ran to the place where their grandmother had been. It is
hard to know how a grandmother and her grandchildren could have posed an
imminent threat to life. Hard to imagine also, how anyone could claim
that in the immediate aftermath of an initial strike, a pilot thousands of
miles away could determine who the people who ran to the scene of the incident
were, and whether they were legitimate targets. In this instance, they were
children who were maimed. These so called “rescuer attacks” are a grim
signature feature of the drone attacks documented in the report.

The USA continues to rely on a “global war” doctrine to attempt to justify a
borderless war with al-Qa’ida, the Taliban or other “enemies” of the USA. It
also claims that its drone strikes are extremely accurate based on vetted
intelligence and that the vast majority of those killed have been linked to
al-Qa’ida and its allies. The world has to take this on faith, since the US administration refuses to disclose key facts, such as
details of who is targeted and on what basis. Certainly the findings of
Amnesty’s research today put a significant dent in that faith.

The first rule about the drones programme is, apparently, that you don’t talk
about the drones programme. Although that rule has not been universally adhered
to, almost every element of the operation is surrounded in a veil of secrecy.
The USA’s promise to increase transparency around drone strikes, underscored by
a major policy speech by President Barack Obama in May, has yet to become a
reality and the USA still refuses to divulge even basic factual and legal
information. This secrecy has enabled
the USA to act with impunity and block victims from receiving
justice or compensation. As far as Amnesty is aware, no US official has ever
been held to account for unlawful killings by drones in Pakistan. The secrecy
surrounding the drones programme essentially gives the US administration a
license to kill beyond the reach of the courts or basic standards of
international law.

The
use of drones is rapidly becoming one of the big moral challenges of our time, and if we are not careful,
their use will continue under the radar, and beyond the scope of public
scrutiny. There are debates to be had about how technological advances are
deployed and there needs to be accountability without exceptions. For now, we
are dealing in the dark, without access to the quantitative data that experts
need access to and reliant on compiling testimony from bereaved families like
the Bibis who lost a wife, mother and grandmother when she was blown to bits
from a pilotless aircraft in the skies. How common is that tale of woe? The
truth is at the moment we really don’t know. It’s time for the US to drone up. [Abridged]

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About Me

I am not an academic. I have been a commercial beekeeper in New Zealand for most of my working life, except for four years in detention as a conscientious objector during WW2. Those years were particularly formative for me. I have retained my horror of war and the suffering still being caused by armed conflict and violence in so many places. My convictions have been nurtured by my Methodist church connection, though my pacifism has been deplored by some good people.

Expect no slick answers here; I am still a searcher myself. How can a just and peaceful society develop from this chaos, and what are the obstacles in the way?

Most of the articles posted here are from other sources. I look for writers, wherever they can be found, who can throw light on what is happening in our world. If you would like to learn a little more about myself, please read this biographical interview series conducted by my granddaughter, Kyla.